


Slibbs - ‘Till death do us part

by cmfvids



Category: NCIS
Genre: Angst, Drama & Romance, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Undercover, Undercover as Married, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29181846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmfvids/pseuds/cmfvids
Summary: A rich lieutenant gets murdered in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of DC, and to solve the case the NCIS team decides to send Jack and Gibbs undercover as a married couple. The plan sounds great, but what happens when the tension between Gibbs and Jack starts rising and their friendship starts to develop in something greater?
Relationships: Jethro Gibbs/Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane
Comments: 9
Kudos: 103





	1. Chapter 1

A/N: Since NCIS isn’t giving me the Slibbs content I deserve, I figured I’d write it myself. This is going to be a multi chapter fic, so stay tuned! I hope y’all like it! sidenote: part of this first chapter is more of a prologue to the rest of the story, it’ll be way more interesting as the chapters continue :)

//////////////////////////

“I told you this was a bad idea!”

Jack heard Gibbs storm out of the living room and slam a door shut. She let out a frustrated sigh and tried to relax into the cushions of the couch. Maybe he was right. Maybe this had been a bad idea.

The week had started like any other: with a dead lieutenant. But he wasn’t just any dead lieutenan; he was a very wealthy lieutenant who lived in one of the richest and most expensive neighborhoods of DC. Life was perfect. But just as with everything else in life, most things that seem perfect are actually rotten on the inside. The same went for this neighborhood. One night during a neighbor’s birthday party, Lieutenant Jacob Smith was found dead in one of the guest bathrooms of their house. Extensive investigating and many, many interviews, with just about everyone who lived there, pointed out that most of the people in Jacob’s life had plenty to hide. Jacob, too, had apparently had many secrets. It was up to the agents of NCIS to figure out which of those secrets had gotten him killed. 

Since the investigation wasn’t going anywhere, McGee had had the ‘perfect’ idea to place two agents undercover in the neighborhood. As it turned out, one of the houses was for sale. Gibbs had been against this idea from the beginning, but lack of a better lead led him to eventually cave. The initial plan was to send Bishop and Torres, but as they had so cleverly pointed out, both them had already been at the scene. Which left Gibbs and Jack as the only two who could do the job. 

Gibbs had immediately objected to that. Jack wasn’t a field agent. And though she wasn’t, she herself believed that she was up to the task. Vance thought so too. According to him, her knowledge and skill as a Forensic Psychologist could come in useful during the case. Jack agreed with him, and so it was settled. They were going undercover, together, as a married couple. What could go wrong?

Jack wasn’t completely sure why she had decided to do this. A change of scenery and her usual work, perhaps? Or maybe it just had to do with the fact that now that Gibbs would be forced to be under the same roof with her for days, she could finally talk to him about their… thing. “Gibbs and I are not having a thing…” She remembered that she told herself that over and over again after that one Christmas day, but she was no longer sure about the accuracy of that. The entire team noticed their things, as did she. Gibbs didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it, though. Whenever she brought it up he either ignored it or changed the subject. At first, this didn’t bother Jack so much - she figured, if he was ever ready to talk about it, he would - but the more time passed, the more frustrated she was getting with the fact that he kept avoiding the subject. The least he could do was acknowledge the fact that there was something going on between them. She would even go as far as saying that she had feelings for him. And she was pretty sure he had feelings for her too.

The case had not quite gone the way Jack and Gibbs had wanted them to. It wasn’t that either of them struggled with selling the story, on the contrary. Acting as a married couple seemed to come rather naturally to the both of them. The few times they had met some of their neighbors went pretty well, and all of the people they had met so far seemed to like them. The problem didn’t have anything to do with the case. It had to do with sleeping.

It all seemed very silly, but the two of them had gotten in an argument about who should sleep where. It had happened right after they had dinner. Or well, dinner, let’s just say that the pizzas they ordered were very tasteful. Their fight started after they finished cleaning up. Jack thought that it was weird to sleep in separate bedrooms, because if they really wanted to sell the story of being married in a neighborhood like this everything had to be perfect. Gibbs disagreed with every point that Jack was making, and the discussion had ended with him storming out of the room. He was angry.

Or wasn’t he? As Gibbs sat in the rather empty bedroom, he tried to calm himself down and get his thoughts straight. He wasn’t really angry at Jack. Anger wasn’t the issue. The issue was that the entire idea of them living together like this made him feel incredibly nervous. The fact that he was so vulnerable around her didn’t scare him, which was exactly the problem. Gibbs was a very closed off person. The idea that being so close to Jack didn’t frighten him, made him nervous. He had taken those nerves out on Jack, which he was already starting to regret. Gibbs knew Jack was right, so after a couple of minutes he finally walked back down the stairs and reentered the living room. “Just stay on your side.”

“What?”

“Stay on your side.”

Jack was sitting on the couch with a book, and smiled to herself. She couldn’t help but feel a little proud of the fact that she had won their first… fight, as a ‘married couple’. “I wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise.”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Why did you volunteer to come along?” 

Gibbs’ voice interrupted Jack’s thoughts. She was still reading, although at this point she was more pretending to be. She was actually trying to think of a way to bring up the subject of their ‘thing’, but as she had found out it was a bit of a delicate matter. She wasn’t sure how Gibbs would react, or if he would react at all.

“Because I was asked to come along.” 

“No you weren’t. You volunteered.”

She did. When she had heard from Bishop that they needed someone to go undercover with Gibbs, she had immediately taken the opportunity. She didn’t know how he had figured that out. Not that she was surprised. Gibbs knew everything.

“I just didn’t want to let you go in alone.” She mumbled, but it was a cleverly made up excuse along the way. Of course she didn’t want him to be alone. That, however, wasn’t why she had insisted on coming with him. The reason why she wanted to come with him was because she wanted to be around him. Not just to talk, but because it made her feel comfortable and safe. The truth was that she hadn’t exactly been feeling well, if anything, she’d been struggling. Ever since she had been forced to face Faith’s father again, she found it extremely difficult to feel safe in her own house. Or anywhere for that matter. With Gibbs around, that fear sort of fell away. But it was still a difficult topic for her to talk about, even with him.

“And?” Gibbs asked.

“And that’s it.” 

“No it’s not.” 

“What makes you say that?”

Gibbs stayed silent for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure what to say to that. He just knew. That was usually the case with Jack. The connection they had made it easy for him to read her, easier than anyone else currently in his life.

“Just answer the question.” He quickly said, using it to avoid her question.

“Why should I?” 

“Because I don’t like it when you keep things from me!”

“Why not? You keep things from me too!”

After that, Jack was quiet. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She heard him ask. She didn’t reply. He knew exactly what he was talking about. Sturgeon season. He had been lying about his whereabouts to her for weeks before he finally had the decency to even mention even a word concerning what he was really up to. She fully realized that Gibbs was a very closed off person who didn’t really talk about his feelings and struggles. She accepted that about him. The fact that he lied about what he was really up to to his team didn’t surprise her. But the fact that he had lied to her during those weeks… it made her feel really hurt.

“Nevermind.” She eventually said. Though she still felt a little hurt about it, she didn’t want to make him feel guilty about something so small.

“Jack.”

Jack looked up at him. The way he said her name always did something to her. It made her feel… in love. There was no better way to describe it. Perhaps she wasn’t in the place to admit it to herself yet, but it was there. It had been there for over a year. She was so in love with him, which was exactly why the lying had hurt her so much. She just didn’t understand that. Her feelings were confusing, all tangled up inside her. As much as she tried to make sense of them, she couldn’t. That’s the thing with love, I guess, it’s confusing. Especially for two people who went through what they went through. Who suffered loss like they did.

“Sturgeon season.” Jack eventually spoke, but it was barely a whisper. Gibbs heard her say it, though. “You’re mad about that?” He asked, but she shook her head. “No. I’m not. I’m-” She couldn’t get herself to say it. She couldn’t get herself to say the word ‘hurt’. “Forget it. It’s not important.”

Jack got off the couch. She wanted to be alone. She needed to be alone. She was afraid that whatever she was going to say next would be hurtful, and she didn’t want him angry at her. It would influence the case, and they couldn’t have that. She started walking away, but Gibbs followed her. He wasn’t sure why he did. He had a pretty good idea what she was going to say anyway. He just felt like he had to. When he caught up to her, she was standing at the stairs. He grabbed her hand. 

Jack froze. It’s funny what such a small gesture, such a minor touch, can do to a person. For her it did exactly what teenagers would call ‘butterflies’. Her skin started tingling, and she had a feeling throughout her entire body she couldn’t quite describe. She didn’t say anything, she just turned around and looked into his eyes. If eyes could speak - which they did in their case - they would tell him to ‘go ahead, say whatever you want to say’. Gibbs understood that, but he didn’t speak. It was like he lost the ability to. All the time Jack and Gibbs had spent together, from cases, to long conversations in her office, to beers at his house, it had never been as intense as this. Anyone could sense the undeniable tension between the two of them. So did they. They just didn’t know what to do with it. Jack should’ve kissed him in that moment - and she was tempted to - but something held her back. Fear of rejection, she figured. She overanalyzed everyone in her life, including herself sometimes. But she believed her fear was justified, because what if she was wrong? What if he would reject her? Not having him fully as the love of her life was painful sometimes, but it was better than not having him in her life at all. Jack would rather settle for friendship, than lose him completely.

They stayed frozen in that spot at the bottom of the stairs for what felt like an eternity. Their eyes were interlocked, their fingers intertwined, almost as if they were trying to read each other’s minds. Jack eventually felt like it got too much. “Like I said. It’s not important.” She spoke up, finally breaking the silence. Her voice echoed through the hall of the mansion that was way too big for the two of them. She broke their eye contact and let his fingers slip out of hers. 

“Goodnight, Gibbs.” Jack whispered, and with that she disappeared up the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

The following morning, the tension between them still hadn’t disappeared. Gibbs had spent the night on the couch, mainly because he didn’t know how to face her after their argument. He didn’t think she wanted to see him anyway. He couldn’t have been more wrong, though. Jack had spent the entire night hoping he would walk into the room and lay down beside her. She usually didn’t sleep very well. This night hadn’t been any different. While she was awake she had gotten up a few times. She had stood at the top of the stairs, thinking about walking downstairs to just be around him. They hadn’t been as close to each other as they had during the past 24 hours, but yet the distance between them seemed to only get wider. 

They barely said three words during breakfast. Neither of them knew what to say to the other. Jack was just about to bring up the case again - they had to talk to each other sooner or later - when the doorbell rang. 

“Who’s that?” Jack asked surprised and glanced out of the window to figure out if she could see who had rang the doorbell. 

“How am I supposed to know?” Was Gibbs’ answer. Jack decided to ignore that comment. It was just… Gibbs being Gibbs. Instead she walked to the front door and opened it.

“Hi. My name is Karen Whitning. I live next door.” The woman in front of her immediately started telling. “My husband Johnny and I noticed that the house got sold and we’re quite excited to meet our new neighbors.” Jack immediately noticed that their neighbor Karen surely wasn’t from here. She had a very southern accent. She was middle-aged, a brunette, she was wearing high heels - higher than Jack’s - and she was way too overdressed for a Saturday morning. Jack immediately noticed that the woman got on her nerves. Karen… she did her name justice.

“Nice to meet you.” Jack said with a smile. “My name is Jacqueline…” She turned her head and glanced at Gibbs. Get over here, the look in her eyes told him. She wasn’t sure if he got that, but whatever he did understand seemed to deliver the message. “And this is my husband.” She said as he finally made his way over and stood beside her. Husband. It still felt so weird to her to call him that. That was the only part of their whole act that came unnatural to her, though. As he stood behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, she immediately went along with it. It was as if the things that had happened the night before just disappeared. 

“Jethro.” He exchanged his hand as he introduced himself to Karen.

Karen shook his hand. “It is so nice to finally meet you. Listen. My husband Johnny and I were wondering if you wanted to come over tonight for dinner? We would love to get to know our neighbors.”

Karen was… a lot. She wasn’t the type of person either of them would voluntarily like to be around, but it was in the best interest of the case. This was a perfect opportunity to do some investigating. “We would love to come over.” Jack said with a smile.

“Great. Listen, normally I would stay and chat more, but I’m kind of in a hurry. I’ll see you two tonight, around 7?” Before either of them could even reply, their new neighbor had already ran off. Jack closed the door. They stood at the door for a few seconds, and during those seconds, Gibbs didn’t take his hand off her shoulder. Jack closed her eyes. She wanted to savor moments like these. The feeling of his hand on her shoulder made her feel more than she’d like to admit.

“We should… Try and find information on those two.” She eventually whispered and turned around. His hand moved off her shoulder and brushed across her fingers. He still hadn’t moved. They were standing so close to each other. Jack could feel his breath on her forehead. She kept having the the crazy thought that if they were ever going to kiss, this was the perfect moment. That was the only thing she had on her mind. She even caught herself leaning in a little. She would have done it, too, had it not been for Gibbs suddenly stepping away from her. “Right.”

Jack wasn’t sure what to do. It was like her brain had shut off. She had almost kissed him. If He hadn’t stepped away, she would have kissed him. She couldn’t believe herself. “Jack?” Gibbs saying her name woke her up. “Everything okay?” 

Jack nodded in reply. “Yeah. I’m fine. I was just thinking.”

“Care to share?”

Jack quickly shook her head and finally stepped away from the door. “Nope. It’s not important.” She grabbed her phone. “I’ll call the team.” 

////////////////////////////////////////////

Jack and Gibbs spent the rest of the day working the case, while doing whatever they could to fit into the neighborhood. Around noon, Jack went to ‘the store’, which was conveniently used as an excuse to be able to meet with Ellie to get some files. As it turned out, Karen’s husband Johnny was one of their main suspects. He had the most to hide and apparently he had had multiple arguments with the victim during the days leading up to his death.

Jack had almost told Bishop about the things that had happened between her and Gibbs over the past two days, but she hadn’t gone through with it. They were close, but Jack had never been very open about her love life, or her private life in general. She didn’t want to bother Ellie with her messy feelings. That was her job. Jack was more of a listener rather than a talker. The only person she ever openly talked to was Gibbs, and he was the only person she felt like she couldn’t talk to in this situation.

It was now about ten minutes before Jack and Gibbs had to be at Karen’s place to meet the couple for dinner. Jack came out of the bathroom and walked down the stairs. She was wearing a blue dress and a pair of high heels. When she came through the door she was putting in an earring. She stood still in front of a mirror, her back facing Gibbs. She had decided to forget about what had happened the night before. They both had. It was irrelevant. If only they ever spoke to each other about those feelings, perhaps they would be more than friends by now. But after all the things both of them had gone through, they didn’t know how to talk about those things to each other. Perhaps it was fear of losing what they both cherished so much: each other. 

Gibbs was dressed much simpler, just a blouse with a pair of trousers. He had been waiting for Jack for a while now, wondering what was taking her so long. When she finally came downstairs he went to say something, but it was like his mind went blank when she walked through the door. He caught himself staring at her and quickly looked away. She was beautiful. It was something he always noticed, but there was something about these past few days that only intensified those thoughts and feelings. 

“...Gibbs?” He suddenly heard. He looked up. “Yes?” He replied. Jack looked at him a little confused, but then continued with what she was apparently asking him. “I said, are you ready?”

“I think the question is, are you? I’ve been sitting here for half an hour.”

“Shut up.” She said jokingly and laughed. “Let’s go.”

///////////////////////////////////////////

The dinner was exhausting. Karen was very full of herself. Jack kept telling herself that it was in the best interest of the case, but this really was the worst dinner ‘party’ she had ever been to.

When Karen was finally quiet for a few seconds, Jack realized there was no better moment to ask them about the dead lieutenant, Jacob. “I read in the newspaper that the guy who lived across the street got killed. That must’ve made quite the impact on you.”

Johnny definitely seemed taken aback a little by the question, but his wife wasn’t. “I’m not surprised. That guy had plenty to hide. He was living on borrowed time ever since-” She suddenly stopped talking.

“Ever since what?” Jack asked, but Karen ignored that question. “So how did you two meet?” She quickly asked, looking at the two of them for an answer. Jack silently cursed herself. She was trying to gain these people’s trust, not scare them off. After the questions she’d just asked, it wouldn’t surprise her if their neighbors didn’t trust them at all anymore.

“My car broke down.” Jack answered with a small smile. If she was honest, she hadn’t worked out this part of their cover. It came easy, though. Telling the lie wasn’t something she struggled with. Maybe because it wasn’t a lie.

“And?”

Jack remembered their first meeting. In the middle of a storm she had pretended to have a broken car so she could get to know her new colleague. The best way to get to know someone is to meet them in their own home, she had thought, but that wasn’t the only reason she had done it. She had heard many stories about Gibbs during the weeks leading up to her transfer to NCIS, and she was intrigued. She had been so curious to get to know who he was. Although, as she had found out, that wasn’t so easy with Gibbs.

“It was in the middle of a storm and I needed a place to shelter. I knocked on his door… And the rest is history.” Jack noticed that Gibbs took her hand. She felt herself blush a little. Even Though this was part of their cover, she couldn’t help herself.

“That’s so romantic.” Karen said and smiled at the two of them. She glanced at Gibbs. “When did you know she was the one?” She suddenly asked.

Jack was on the edge of her seat now. She was very curious what Gibbs was going to make up now.

Gibbs didn’t need time to think about that. It came very easily to him, perhaps because already knew the answer to that question beforehand. “Christmas.” He said with a small smile. “She was going to go skiing, but she couldn’t make it because of an emergency at work. We spent Christmas together… That’s when I knew I couldn’t imagine my life without her.”

Jack’s mouth dropped a little, but she was able to hide it. Christmas. That wasn’t made up. Every word he had said, had happened. Her skiing trip got cancelled because of a last minute case and she had spent the entire day at Gibbs’ place. 

Jack didn’t know if he meant it. Gibbs did know. He meant every word. Christmas was so long ago, but if he was really honest with himself he knew back then that he never wanted to let her go. He wanted her in his life. 

Forever.


	3. Chapter 3

The dinner didn’t just get Jack and Gibbs some useful information, but it also got them an invitation to the yearly neighborhood barbecue in a couple of days. Karen was “so excited to have them over”, for whatever reason that was. Not that that mattered. Gibbs mostly saw it as an opportunity to ask around a little to try and figure out which one of the neighbors had the biggest personal vendetta with Jacob. 

One of the things they found out during the dinner with Karen and her husband was that a lot of people on this street hated their victim. He was too caught up with work, he didn’t have enough time for his girlfriend, he was too young, the music was too loud… Johnny and Karen made a lot of subtle complaints about the guy, which Jack surely picked up on. Everyone here hated him, and if Jack and Gibbs weren’t careful, everyone would probably hate them too.

And they had found a letter opener. Gibbs found it in one of the drawers in the hallway of Karen’s house when he pretended to go to the bathroom. It looked like it had been wiped clean. Jacob had been stabbed fifteen times by a small knife, and the size of the letter opener matched the size of the stab wounds. He wasn’t sure whether it was the murder weapon or not, but if there was even the slightest possibility, he had to figure that out. So he had slipped it in his pocket and taken it with him after the dinner.

Jack and Gibbs spent the following day working on the case. “I have to go.” Gibbs said at some point during the day. It was late in the afternoon.

“Why?” Jack asked confused as she looked up from one of the profiles she was working on.

“I’m taking the weapon to McGee. It needs to get taken to the lab.” 

Jack nodded and took off her glasses. She placed them on the table. “You go do that. I’ll stay here and play housewife.”

“Jack…”  
  
It was obvious that Jack didn’t enjoy the neighborhood they had been placed in. Everyone looked at her as if they were judging her. She thought it was her own fault, because she didn’t fit in well enough. She clearly wasn’t the type of person to live in a place like this. She didn’t naturally fit in here, and she was afraid people were starting to notice that. The fact that it had another reason never crossed her mind. _If only it had._

“It’s fine.” She smiled softly at Gibbs. “Go meet with McGee. I’ll be fine.”

Gibbs looked at Jack for a few seconds. She was sitting cross-legged on the couch with a bunch of papers spread out around her. He only then noticed how cute she looked. He eventually stood up and grabbed his coat, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. It was so simple, yet so unexpected. Jack wasn’t sure if he had done it to keep their cover intact in case somebody was watching, or if it had another reason. For Gibbs… Well, it was unclear to him too, but it was most likely a bit of both.

Jack was tired. She expected Gibbs to be away for about an hour, so after he left she decided to call it a day and clean up the mess she had created. She compiled all the papers and files and hid them in the safe that had come with the house, just in case they would get an unexpected guest. She almost hadn’t cleaned them up - she figured, who would come visit them at this hour - _but in retrospect, it was probably good that she had._ She then decided to make dinner. She wasn’t the best cook Gibbs would probably ever meet, but she thought it was nice to surprise him.

Perhaps if she hadn’t decided to cook, perhaps if she hadn’t put on the stove, things wouldn’t have gone down the way they did. Perhaps she would’ve heard the intruder. Because about half an hour after Gibbs had left, someone snuck through their front door. How he got in was unclear, the best guess was that the previous owners had probably left him a key. Jack could vaguely hear the door open and thought it was Gibbs. “You’re back already?” She didn’t look up. “That kind of ruins the surprise. I wanted to be finished before you got-” She was unable to finish her sentence, because she suddenly felt something against her head. Not just something, a gun. Someone was holding a gun to her head.

“Turn around. Slowly.” The voice of the man was low. She didn’t recognize it. She placed down the knife she was using to cut up the vegetables and slowly put up her hands. She turned around. The man in front of her was taller than her, completely dressed in black and wearing a mask. “Where is it?” He asked. Jack immediately knew what he was talking about. The letter opener. She was so glad that Gibbs had taken it with him, because now it was no longer in the house.  
  
“Where’s what?” She asked. The best thing to do in a situation like this was play dumb. So she did.

“You know what I am talking about!” Jack could hear an angry growl from the back of his throat. “No, I don’t!”“Where’s your husband?”“He went to the store.”  
  
“You’re lying!” He accused her. She was lying, but how could he know that. Unless he suspected them of something - which was impossible, because if their cover was blown surely they would have found out - there was no way he could know that.  
  
“I’m not.” She took a deep breath to stop herself from freaking out. She was freaking out, on the inside. There was a man holding a gun to her head, so who wouldn’t be scared? Jack wasn’t just scared, she was terrified. She was just good at not showing that. “If you could just put the gun down, I can help you. We can talk.” She tried, but she knew it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference.

“You’re useless.” The man said angrily. Jack closed her eyes. She really believed he was going to kill her, but he didn’t. He put his arm in the air, using the back of the gun to hit her head. She felt the gun hit her forehead, and a few seconds later she felt a sharp pain through her head. She lost her balance and tripped, hitting head on the side of the counter. After that, she didn’t really know what happened. Everything just went black. 


	4. Chapter 4

When Gibbs came back, he noticed that the door was open. He had a gun hidden in his car in case of emergencies, so he immediately pulled it out. The thought of Jack being hurt caused him so much pain, anger and worry all at once. He got out of the car as fast as he could and ran into the house. He looked around. The drawers were opened and there was shattered glass all over the floor, but that didn’t grab his attention. In the middle of all the mess was Jack, lying unconscious on the floor. Gibbs didn’t even take time to check if the house was empty. Luckily for him, it was, but he no longer cared. He made his way over to Jack.

“Jack?” He asked worriedly and helped her sit up. He noticed there was a blood down the left side of her face from a cut on her forehead. 

At first, Jack wasn’t sure what had happened. She didn’t really hear Gibbs’ voice either, all she felt was pain. Her head was pounding from the smack it had made against the counter, and her whole body hurt because of the fall. She opened her eyes, feeling relieved when she saw Gibbs. The memories of what had happened slowly came back to her.

“What happened?” She heard him ask. She had never seen him this worried before.

“Someone… was looking for the…” Jack swallowed as she went to stand up. Gibbs wanted to help her. “I’m fine.” She said and tried to push him off. Of course he didn’t listen. “You’re bleeding.”

Getting up hurt her too much, so she eventually gave up and relaxed as she sat against the wall. “You know what, the floor is nice.” She said quietly and tried to smile a little. Gibbs grabbed a paper towel off the counter and used it to dab the wound clean. Jack pulled her head away. She didn’t think she needed help. She obviously did, but she wasn’t someone who quickly accepted that. 

“Let me look at that.” Gibbs said sternly. After he said that, she gave in. “Fine.” She glared at him. If the situation had been any different, Gibbs would’ve actually thought that she was very cute. But right now, he was just worried.

“It’s not deep.” He said as he cleaned the blood off her forehead.

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“Are you going to let me help you or what?” 

Eventually, she did. She allowed him to help her and fuss over her, even though she usually hated that. If she was really honest, she kind of enjoyed it. She never really had someone who was this worried about her. She had insisted on not going to the hospital - it wasn’t that big of a deal - and Gibbs eventually made peace with that. He put a steri-strip on the cut to close the wound and she took an aspirin, which was all the ‘help’ she would accept.

//////////////////////////////////////////

Jack had totally forgotten about dinner. Not that she was hungry anyway. She was tired, and scared. What if the man came back? After Gibbs was finished he went to clean up the house and put on a fire. When he was done cleaning up he walked into the living room, where he found Jack sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“Hey.” He said with a small smile as he sat down beside her. Jack didn’t reply. She just stared at the dancing flames in front of her.

“So what happened?” Gibbs asked her after a few minutes. Jack finally looked up. “I was making dinner. Someone came in, I thought it was you, he held a gun to my head and when I didn’t have what he wanted… He knocked me out.” She shrugged a little.

“Do you know what he wanted?” Gibbs asked. Jack nodded slowly. “He didn’t say it, but I’m pretty sure it was the letter opener you took from Karen’s place the other day.”

“Did you see his face? Did you recognize him?”

Jack shook her head. “No. I didn’t. I’m sorry I can’t be of more use.” 

“It’s okay.” He whispered. They sat there for a while in silence, while Jack continued to stare at the fire. “We can stop, you know?” Gibbs suddenly said. “If it’s too much, we can stop.”

“No.” Jack said to that. “We’re finally getting somewhere. We can’t stop now.” Gibbs figured she would say that, but it was worth a try. 

“Okay.” He said. 

“Okay?” Jack chuckled. “You’re not going to argue with me?” 

Gibbs shook his head. “Are you saying I’d win that?” 

Touché, Jack thought. Of course he wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to stop working the case, not now. Not after all the work they put into this. She wanted to continue, even after what had happened to her, even though she was hurting, and even though she was terrified. She noticed she was tearing up. She looked away from Gibbs. She didn’t want him to see her like this.

“Jack?” Gibbs asked and placed his hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing.” He could hear the crack in her voice. She swallowed. “I’m fine.”

She had said that so often in the past hour that it didn’t even sound like a real word anymore. She finally looked at him with tears in her eyes. Gibbs noticed her tears. She was in so much pain, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to take it away. He put his arms around her. She was a little hesitant at first, but ended up letting him. Even though what had happened to her was terrible, it had one positive consequence. She finally realized that right there in his arms was the only place she felt safe. 

They had never done this. Though there had been hand holding, and he had hugged her once or twice, they had never been this close together. That didn’t matter. She felt safe, and comfortable. Their guards were finally coming down. She relaxed against his chest and closed her eyes, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“I’m sorry.” Gibbs whispered. He couldn’t help but somehow feel responsible for this. If he hadn’t left, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. He should’ve been there to protect her.

“Don’t be.” Jack whispered and took his hand. He couldn’t have prevented this, and he didn’t have to. He was already protecting her, if not from an intruder, then maybe from her own thoughts and fears. She hoped that one day he would realize that.

“You’re here now. That’s enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What’s that? Three chapters in two days? 
> 
> Chapter 3 and 4 were originally going to be one chapter, but it came out pretty long so I thought it was better to split them up. But then I also didn’t want y’all to think something really bad happened to Jack and since I’m not a cruel person who wants to traumatize their readers, like the ncis writers, I figured I wouldn’t keep you waiting! :)
> 
> Also question: do you guys care about the murder plot? Because I sorta work out who killed him but I want to be sure y’all care abt that part of the fic lmao, ahaha!


End file.
